St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February

Author / Editor
Oruch, Jack B.

Title
St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February

Published
Speculum 56 (1981): 534-65.

Description
Although Charles d'Orleans first described an actual Valentine's Day lottery, it was apparently Chaucer who, in PF and Mars, first associated Saint Valentine's Day with love, both in its ornithological simplicity and in its human complexity. His innovation was adopted by Gower, Clanvowe, and Oton de Grandson.

Chaucer Subjects
Parliament of Fowls.
Complaint of Mars.